My commute is 40 minutes, and hardly took that to get me hooked. In this book Ayad Akhtar tells a coming-of-age story like none other. It is the story of Hyat Shah, a young palestinian-american boy whose life changes when Mina, his mother’s oldest friend, moves in with them from palestine to escape an abusive ex-husband. Along with a joie-de-vivre and a young son, she brings her love of Islam, which she teaches to Hyat. As Hyat grows up, and learns more of Islam, his understanding of both the world and his beliefs are tested. While from Mina he is learning the love, peace, and acceptance of Islam, from neighbours and community members he is taught anti-semitism, misogyny, and intolerance. He struggles between these two interpretations as his agnostic father becomes an alcoholic, Mina begins to date a white jewish man, and the family struggles to maintain relationships with their more-traditional palestinian community. 

The prose of this novel was beautiful, and narrated by the author, took me straight into the confused heart and mind of a young boy trying to square the complexities of religion and family. His love of Islam is paralleled with the love he has for Mina, and his jealousy when she begins to date Nathan dovetails with his use of the Qu`ran to cause pain and hurt. 

This book has extremely troubling scenes of hate, bigotry, and misogyny, but also beautiful scenes of love and peace. It was a heart-swelling, and heart-breaking story from start to end and one of my favourite books of the year.